Watching Quality Balls, the highly entertaining story of David Steinberg’s life and career, I was hooked by wonderful clips revealing how satiric comedy emerged as the most potent critique of North American politics and culture of a tumultuous era.

Flashback to the 1960s. The golden age of satire begins in Chicago at Second City. Then several great storytellers — Richard Pryor, Woody Allen, Lily Tomlin — make the leap from fringe to mainstream. Eventually this creative explosion would shake the foundations of network TV.

Steinberg played a big role in that revolution — as reflected in Toronto director Barry Avrich’s latest film, debuting at Hot Docs on Thursday. It will then get a theatrical run at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema beginning May 24.

In recent years Steinberg has focused on directing cutting-edge TV sitcoms including Designing Women, Seinfeld, Mad About You and Curb Your Enthusiasm. But back then he was a fearless stand-up comic whose material was so daring that it prompted CBS to cancel The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, then the most popular show on the air, just because millions were shocked by Steinberg’s wickedly funny “sermons” about Moses and Jonah.

For Steinberg, it all began in the scrambled ethnic mishmash of Winnipeg’s north end, where he was known as Duddy. The spoiled youngest in a devoutly Jewish family, he learned at an early age that he could make friends by being funny.

At 15 he moved to Chicago to enroll in a yeshiva, not because he wanted to be a rabbi but because he wanted to leave Winnipeg. He talked his way into a small theatre company, then moved to Second City, following in the footsteps of Elaine May, Paul Sills and Alan Arkin.

In Chicago he developed his two greatest creations: satiric sermons that drew on his detailed knowledge of the Bible, and sketches in which he played a demented psychiatrist tormenting patients.

The most fascinating section of Quality Balls shows how he finally made it in New York after appearing in two Broadway flops. Doing a standup act in the Village, he sometimes had only six or seven people in the audience. But then one night, a critic from the New York Times turned up, wrote a rave review — and suddenly Steinberg was hot.

Among the doc’s highlights are clips of Steinberg sparring with Johnny Carson, who kept inviting him back as a guest and even made him guest host. But Steinberg’s career had its dark side, especially when his performance got the Smothers Brothers yanked from the air, and when his hilariously nasty cracks about Richard Nixon brought unwarranted attention from the FBI.

“We wanted to get a sense of this Canadian who broke into the Hollywood club, and his unbelievable journey starting in Winnipeg,” says Avrich, who has previously made docs about moguls Lew Wasserman, Harvey Weinstein and Garth Drabinsky.

But collaborating with Steinberg meant there were bound to be challenges, especially since one of the producers of the documentary is Robyn Todd, who happens to be Steinberg’s wife. So it’s no surprise there are too many testimonials from friends and colleagues, and very little reference to his failed attempts to become a movie star (in the feeble 1979 film Something Short of Paradise) or a big-screen director (in the embarrassingly sentimental 1981 Burt Reynolds comedy Paternity and 1983’s screamingly unfunny Going Berserk).

These days Steinberg has a comfortable life in Los Angeles, and he’s respected as one of TV’s top directors. But despite a recent effort to return to performing stand-up comedy, I’d say it’s too late for that, partly because the times have changed but also because of a familiar syndrome — wherein too much success causes talented people to fall in love with themselves, losing the freshness and daring that propelled them on the way up.

Steinberg at his exuberant best can be glimpsed here in the old David Steinberg Show, which ran on CTV for one season only (1976-77). Produced and directed by Perry Rosemond, it featured Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Joe Flaherty and John Candy. I wish CTV would rerun all 24 episodes. The series is one of Canadian TV’s buried treasures.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.